Wichita ? Spurred by low interest rates and high commodity prices, the value of Kansas farmland rose 4.4 percent to an average $715 per acre, Kansas Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday.

Kansas farmland was valued at $685 per acre last year and $665 per acre in 2002, according to the KASS, which conducts an annual farmland survey. The value of Kansas farmland has gone up every year since 1992.

Kansas conducted its agricultural land values survey in May and June, asking respondents for information on their rental rates and farmland values.

The report shows irrigated cropland in Kansas valued at an average $1,110 per acre, while nonirrigated cropland was $665 an acre. The average for all Kansas cropland was $705 per acre. Pasture and rangeland was valued at $430 per acre.

The KASS report offers a more in-depth examination of the state’s farmland values than the report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service issued earlier this month.

The KASS report also shows Kansas still lags well behind farm real estate values nationwide. The value of all land and buildings on farms nationwide averaged $1,360 per acre on Jan. 1, up 7.1 percent from 2003.

It was the largest percentage increase nationwide since 1994, and the largest dollar increase since 1980, NASS reported. The agency credited the increase of the nation’s farm real estate values to a combination of low interest rates, high commodity production and prices, and strong demand from nonagricultural land uses.

In Kansas, all nine of the state’s districts showed slight increases in cropland and farmland values, KASS reported.